Truncheon Books
by Gothic Valley Girl
Summary: As Jess returns to Philadelphia after traveling to promote his book, he finds overnight success and alarming new developements in his life.
1. Chapter 1

Truncheon Books

Disclaimer- I do not own Jess Mariano or Rory Gilmore, or any other characters mentioned in the Gilmore Girl Series. Everything else is mine.

This story takes place after the episode Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out. Follows Jess back to Philadelphia.

The sounds of the pistons releasing air filled Jess Mariano's ears as he woke up on a Greyhound Bus starring out the window to the barely leafed trees of Pennsylvania. For the past five hours he made the backseat of the bus his bed. Normally all he had to do to make a bus ride bearable was crack open a book, but not today. Today anything that could make him think about his ex-girlfriend was torture. More torture than being forced to sit next to the bathroom on an excruciatingly long ride. Jess rubbed his eyes and looked through his bag which was seconds before his pillow. The small bathroom door opened up beside him and a large balding man squeezed out of the cramped space. A foul smell entered the young brooding male's nose and changed his mind that thinking about his ex was not worse than where he was sitting. Pulling out his mp3 player and a copy of _The Time Travelers Wife_ he tried to make his blue seat more comfortable for the trip to Philadelphia.

The last pages of his book left his blood cold. He looked up from closing it and saw the familiar sight of the Schuylkill River and Boathouse Row lit up in its glory. Realizing that the bus ride from hell was finally over cheered him up from the depressing ending. He was finally home and away from Connecticut, away from Rory.

Rory… He survived an eight hour bus ride without thinking about her. How could he slip up on the last ten minutes?

The announcement for his stop came through statically about the bus. Only he and the balding man from the bathroom remained. Jess grabbed his bag and shoved the book and mp3 player inside. He walked up the narrow aisle unsteadily as the bus still moved. He wanted to get off as soon as possible, the idea of staying on there a minute longer than needed revolted him. The bus pulled into the parking lot of 30th street Station with a jolt.

It was almost midnight in Philadelphia when Jess stepped on the bus. A yawn escaped him as his mobile prison drove away. While he walked toward home all that was on his mind was the disastrous trip to New England. He was originally traveling up the coast to sell his book to bookstores, but being within 100 miles of Stars Hollow made him make a detour. He needed to see Rory. He made something of himself and wanted to win her back. He believed that writing a book would make her love him again. In Hartford lay a whole different Rory than the one he was in love with. The girl he fell in love with years before was bubbly, intelligent, made up her own mind and had a plan for her life.

Twenty blocks later he still couldn't figure out what happened to that girl. That girl left his mind once he saw his front door lit up from a glowing neon sign for the gay bar next door. He sat down on the stoop and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his black leather jacket. Sticking the butt in his mouth he searched his pockets for a lighter. Cursing under his breath he pulled open his bag. Heels tapped against the cracking sidewalk in front of him.

"Here sweetie," a deep voice sounded above him. A man wearing a pink curly wig and a blue dress towered above him with a lit Zippo in hand. Jess leaned over with the cigarette in the flame until he was satisfied that it was lit.

"Thanks," Jess muttered to the man in drag. "I really needed that."

"Not a problem gorgeous," the man answered. "So are you going inside? I'll buy you a drink."

"Thanks, but I actually live here so I'll have to pass. But before you go in, your thigh high is around your ankle." The man looked down at his leg, startled by Jess's comment. He wasn't too great of a drag queen. He didn't even shave his legs to Jess's dismay.

"Oh how embarrassing," he, or she, answered putting his foot up on the step Jess was seated and pulled his tights up. Jess took a long drag on his cigarette, trying to avoid looking up the man's dress. "My name is Ronnie by the way. Here's my number," he said while he pulled a business card from his water filled bra. "Give me a call about that drink."

"Thanks," Jess responded in an uninterested voice. He took the paper and stuck it in his pocket. "I'm Jess."

"Mmm, both of us have non-gender specific names, yummy." Jess sincerely hoped that it was dark enough outside to hide the look on his face. He remembered last month when his roommate made the mistake of pissing off a drag queen and they spent the rest of the night at Jefferson Hospital. From the doorway to the club a whistle came. A man dressed in a red cocktail dress and a long black wig was motioning to Ronnie to get inside.

"Sorry sweetie gotta go in. Charlie can be so impatient," Ronnie apologized. He trotted over to the bar, leaving Jess to himself.

What a night, Jess thought as he took another drag. He pulled himself to his feet and turned to his front door. Taking the keys from his pocket with one hand he flicked the finished cigarette into the street. Locust was a pretty quiet street. It didn't have the historical buildings like most of Center City, but it was quaint. The boys lived in a two story townhouse with an attic they couldn't break into, and a basement where their small business was held. His roommates were fiends for security. They had three separate locks for the front door, then an additional alarm system once entering the building. He quickly pressed the numbers 8, 4, 3, 1, 0 on the keypad and hit enter. A green light blinked making it safe for him to walk inside without a loud annoying siren blaring. He dragged his bag inside and flipped the light switch on.

Jess groaned as he noticed the hallway was cluttered with dirty laundry, discarded shoes, and a couple of bags of garbage. What made it worse was half of it was there when he left a week ago.

"Dude! What took you so long?" Someone called from deeper inside the house. Jess left go of his bag and walked down the hall to where their living room was located.

Sitting on the floor in front of a television sat the three boys Jess shared the brownstone with. The only light inside the room emanated from the video game the three were engrossed with.

"What the hell happened to this place while I was gone?" Jess asked crabbily. He turned on the light, temporarily blinding the gamers.

"Some crazy shit man," answered the chubby redhead with a game controller in hand. "We've been real busy."

"Oh yeah? Is that right Matthew? Then what the hell are you playing… wait what are you playing?" Jess asked confused. He walked over to look at the screen. "When did you get an Xbox?"

"Well, we know how you feel about video games" started the scrawny Asian boy with wire frames. "So since you were gone we thought 'Why not go buy an Xbox?" Jess glowered at his friends.

"What money did you use to buy this? When I left last week, Chris, you were broke," Jess asked in a disdained tone to his Korean roommate.

"Man! You won't believe how popular your book is now. You must have done a great job promoting it," Matthew said excitedly. The third roommate, a tall muscular blonde man in a pair of ripped jeans got up form the floor and walked up to Jess. He pulled an envelope from his back pocket.

"This is your cut from it. We just took our percentage we all agreed on when we printed it," said the man, the same one that was the first to greet Jess when he entered the house. "Orders have been coming in all week for more copies."

"We even got enough that we could pay off Derek's car!" said Matthew excitedly.

"Good, because my car is somewhere up near Ithaca," Jess answered taking the envelope from Derek.

"What?" Chris asked.

"I was driving back from Connecticut and it broke down on this highway. So I walked for miles until I finally found a diner off this exit. I had to get it towed to some mechanic. He said it wasn't even worth it to fix, so I sold it to him for two hundred bucks and bought a bus ticket home," Jess recounted to his friends while unzipping his jacket.

"Ouch. How was the rest of the trip?" asked Chris. Jess was growing weary of having to do a dramatic retelling of his disastrous road trip. He turned to sit on the couch and saw it broken in pieces, the mattress rolled up leaning against the wall.

"What the fuck did you guys do to my futon?" He yelled. Laying in pieces was the first piece of furniture he ever bought.

"First Friday" all three responded in chorus. Jess turned and glared at his partners in publishing.

"Excuse me?" He spat with venom throwing his jacket onto the floor.

"Derek, it was your idea, you tell him," said a slightly frightened Matthew. Derek backed away from where he was standing, clearly afraid that Jess might punch him any second.

"Alright, so you know how First Friday was this weekend?" Derek asked, looking ashamed at his feet.

"Where does my couch come into play?" Jess asked impatiently.

"Let me get to it!" Derek snapped. "Well, Matthew, Chris and I were out on the stoop, trying to figure out how to celebrate our booming orders, and this group of smoking hot girls walked by. Man it was only seven o'clock and they were obviously drunk. So this one babe came up to me and starting flirting like mad! So I asked them where they are heading because they were dressed to kill. They tell us they are going to First Friday. So we go with them. Let me tell you, these girls must be real horny because the one even started hooking up with Matthew."

"Hey!" Matthew cried out, insulted that a girl must be desperate to make out with him.

"Sorry dude," Derek apologized. "But let's face it; these girls were all over us. You could have had a Siamese dead fetus hanging off your face and that girl still would have fucked your brains out. So we go, impressed them with our knowledge of art and personally knowing the artists, and brought them back here."

"That's when the trouble started," Chris interrupted.

"Right…" Derek drew out the word. Jess just looked at all three skeptically with an eyebrow raised. "Os we cracked open that bottle of vodka in the fridge."

"You mean my bottle of vodka?" Jess hollered.

"Yeah, sorry I'll get you another," said Matthew. "The girls really liked hard liquor."

"A little too much," Chris accused.

"Well the girl that was all over Matthew tried pulling him onto your couch there and Matthew tripped and fell into it with her. They leg snapped off," Derek continued, ignoring the others.

"But on the bright side we bought you a real couch," Chris said chipperly. "It comes tomorrow.

"And I got laid," said Matthew with a huge grin. Jess smirked. "We all did."

"So did these girls have a friend for me?" He asked. It was now their turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Seriously?" Matthew asked surprised.  
"What happened with Yale girl?" Chris asked.

"It's over," Jess stated.

"That's awesome man! About fucking time!" Derek clapped him on the back. "They go to that art school down the street. I bet they have a ton of equally desperate girl friends."

Jess tried to look happy, but the thought of desperate college girls didn't really appeal to him. In the back of his mind stood Rory, the perfect intelligent girl, who he couldn't tell if she was under that category too. He grabbed his bag and pulled it behind him to this bedroom upstairs.

He collapsed onto his bed without changing out of his clothes. Rory talking about the photo of teens on a rook in Philadelphia was on his mind as he gently fell asleep to the sound of techno music from the club next door.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The nice thing about where the house stood in Philadelphia was that Jess never had to worry about setting an alarm clock. Every morning at precisely five minutes until six the construction crew would start their work. At the end of his block a new condo was being built. It seemed that pretty soon all of Center City would be condos. Every morning t this time the cement truck would pull up under his window, sit at the traffic light for a few moments, and then drive into the building zone. Then the jackhammers, but nevertheless he would wake up thinking he was getting shot by a machine gun daily.

It took awhile to remember where he was. Just two days ago he was sleeping in his old bed at Stars Hollow. He remembered the fight with Rory, Rory's new boyfriends, the drag queen that was hitting on him, his broken couch, and that was when he finally remembered the envelope Derek gave him last night. There sitting on his nightstand with 'Jess' scribbled across it was his earnings from his book. He sat up and plucked it up, anxiety running through him.

"Please let what's inside this envelope make my trip worth it." He whispered under his breath. He peeled the flap up and pulled out the check. On the amount of line were the words One thousand five hundred and thirteen. His jaw dropped. His stupid little short novel did not seem so stupid now. He grabbed a pen and paper to try and figure out how many copies he just sold. He sold each book for five dollars and the guys took ten percent so that was about three hundred thirty three copies. Jess lay back against his bed and stared at the ceiling. He sold more than three hundred copies of his book. More than three hundred people will read his book one day. He finally made a name for himself and it was printed in capital letters across the spine of more than three hundred books. He could no longer hear the jackhammers. At that moment the pounding of his heart filled his ears.

He wasn't sure how long he had lain in that spot, but he could hear someone downstairs banging stuff around so it seemed like a good time to get up. He stretched his arms back behind him as he walked toward his bathroom. He opened up the door and switched on the light. With a combination of a yell and a cry of disgust he ran out of the bathroom, through his bedroom, and into the hallway. Matthew peeked out of his bedroom door confused.

"Dude, what the hell is your problem?" He asked sleepily. Jess turned and glared angrily at his redheaded roommate.

"There is a fucking infestation in my bathroom!" He screamed, pointing at the floor of his bathroom. Chris popped his head around Matthew.

"Oh yeah," he said spotting the swarm of cockroaches on the floor. "One of the girls might have thrown up in there. I guess she missed."

"That's disgusting! You didn't think to clean it up?"

"No way was I going to touch that!" Ken shrieked.

"Hey I didn't know about it, don't look at me." Matthew pleaded with arms raised.

"Its amazing how you guys managed to ruin a good mood within moments." Jess said sarcastically. Jess stomped downstairs into the kitchen. The mess inside there was worse than any room he had entered yet. Derek stood at the stove in a torn black tank top and red pepper pants frying something that smelled fowl. Jess was surprised he managed to find a clean frying pan. The counters were piled down with dirty dishes. Derek turned when he heard Jess kick a large bag of trash sitting in front of the sink.

"Morning man," Derek said while pulling the hot pan off the stove. "Want some corn beef hash?"

"No way." Jess responded in disgust. He dropped to his knees and pulled open the doors of the cupboard under the sink. Inside he found more dirty dishes, crusted over with mold and more bugs. "Did the dishwasher break while I was gone?"

"Huh? No, we ran out of detergent." Derek said with a mouthful of corn beef.

"You guys are incredible. I leave for a week and the place falls to pieces," jess responded in disbelief, he threw the dirty dishes over his shoulder and started pulling everything out from under the counter. He found a bucket, a scrubbing brush, bug spray and industrial bathroom cleaner.

"Man, what are you doing?"

"There is a fucking infestation in my bathroom. Fifteen cockroaches hid for cover when I turned on the light." Jess informed him.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you one of the girls chucked in your bathroom."

That was the final straw for Jess. He threw the bathroom cleaner at Derek's chest and stood up.

"I'm going out for a while. You and the wonder twins can clean up this place while I'm gone. If I get back and there is any sign of this place being lived in I'm moving out." He yelled.

"You can't be serious."

"Oh I am. So unless you want to get stuck with my part of the rent, get my fucking bathroom vomit free." Jess grabbed his jacket and stormed out of the apartment. Suddenly he was grateful he didn't change out of his clothes the night before.

The air outside was damp and chilled. He wrapped his arms around his chest. Usually when he needed to get out of his apartment, he never had a problem coming up with somewhere to go, but rarely was he ever in need of a place to go at quarter after 8 in the morning. His stomach growled as he walked down Locust Street. He only had ten bucks on him, which he had left over from his bus ticket. He turned sharply onto Fifth Street where a Wawa was.

In Connecticut and New York he had never heard of Wawa, but it seems that everyone from Philadelphia and New Jersey was obsessed with this convenience store. He had to admit, their food and drinks were a whole lot better than Seven Eleven.

It seemed like the only people on the street that morning were joggers. For a split second entertained the idea of starting to job. It was immediately declared stupid at the sight of a man in a purple jogging suit. The absurdity of the scene was something he wanted to tell Rory all about. That was if he was still in Connecticut and she was in a normal state of mind. He watched as a business man walked by him with a large coffee. Wawa must be close.

There it was, nuzzled between two buildings, and a one way street, his breakfast bistro. A homeless man was camped out in front with a shopping cart parked nearby. Jess avoided eye contact and pulled the door open. A set of sleigh bells announced his presence to all that was inside. Grabbing a box of mini chocolate frosted donuts, he made his way to the coffee station. On a rack next to the pots of coffee were travel mugs of all sizes. Seeing a half gallon black mug made Rory cross his mind again.

"What I really need this morning is a lobotomy," he said aloud, startling the woman in a business suit and sneakers picking up the pot of decaf. Jess smirked and picked up the caffeinated pot and lifted it in a mock toast. Filling a 24 oz paper cup with pure black coffee and pocketing several creamers he felt as though his breakfast needs were filled.

He walked up to the counter where a bleary eyed middle aged woman was at a register. Making it obvious she was not a morning person she grabbed the box of donuts from Jess's hands to scan.

"Your total is five dollars and twelve cents," she mumbled.

"Can I get a lighter too? The pack of Bics should work," Jess asked, pulling the ten from his pocket. She slammed it down on the counter. "Thanks." Jess handed her the bill and he watched as the drawer popped open. "Oh can I get a bag too?" The woman rolled her eyes and pulled a bag up from under the counter.

"Can I help the next person?" she yelled, growing weary of Jess as she passed the change to him. Jess smirked as the decaf business lady walked up to the counter.

"You have a good day," he said lifting his coffee up to add a tint of sarcasm to the remark. The woman blushed and smiled at him while the grouch of a cashier rang up her coffee.

Jess walked over to the newspaper stand and balanced his cup on it while he tore open the box of donuts. He dumped half the chocolate coated treats into the bag and put his change inside the box. Satisfied he pushed through the doors and walked up to the homeless man sitting against the wall.

"Good morning," he said to the bum as he handed him the box. "Hope you like chocolate." Jess took a sip of his coffee and continued to walk down the street, looking for a place to enjoy his very unhealthy, yet rewarding breakfast. The man called out after him a thanks and a god bless. Jess raised his coffee a third time in a toast.

Walking toward Washington Square Park he slipped his coffee and munched on the donuts. All he needed to do was waste two hours and he could hide out in Borders for the rest of the day.

As he walked along the path in the park he thought morbidly of what was underneath him. Thousands of unnamed soldiers from the Revolutionary war were decaying under his feet. If it was bad luck to walk over someone's grave, those joggers running laps around the cobblestone paths were looking to have a really bad year. Jess sat on the park bench for hours just reminiscing about what life used to be like. Being in Philadelphia reminded him little of New York.

In New York he was going through a very rough time. School was great there. His mom had him enrolled at a private arts school where he studied creative writing. His best friend there, David, was the root of his problems. Jess had known David his whole life. They were neighbors from birth, side by side in the maternity ward. They grew up together, played little league. Up until Jess's fifteenth birthday rolled around, the two were so tightly knit that Jess was never seen without a smile on his face.

David had decided to take Jess out on a special birthday surprise. Jess's stomach twisted into knots remembering that evening. His friend, a short scrawny pale boy, had taken him to Washington Square in New York City. In the dead of night with only street lights highlighting their features, David had tried to kiss him. Jess, like any heterosexual boy, reacted badly to the surprise. David was hurt emotionally, revealing his love for Jess was not brotherly. Then he was hurt physically by Jess's right joke breaking his nose. Jess abandoned his friend, the closest thing he ever had to a brother, in that dark place that night. He didn't try to understand, or talk, he just stormed away as David bled.

The next morning his mom woke him up with horrible news. They found David in bed that morning dead. He had overdosed on painkillers the night before. The guilt of his friend's death followed him for quite some time. He had gotten so angry and rebellious that his mother sent him to his uncle after he got arrested for fighting some people that were harassing him and calling him a 'homo'.

Everyone thought getting away from New York and the neighborhood he grew up in would turn him back to his old self. They couldn't have been more wrong. He grew more depressed in Stars Hollow. Going to public school was not his niche. Reading and creativity was not encouraged there so he grew bored. He rebelled there too, resentful of being forced to go with his bachelor for life uncle.

Rory was the first step of his recovery. He saw in her what he wanted to be again. He loved her from the beginning. She was everything he wasn't since David's death, and that included being available. She was in a relationship with Mr. All-American Boy.

After what felt like an eternity to him, they didn't end up together. He was not the best boyfriend in the world, and his insecurities caused more problems. It was doomed from the start because he always knew that Rory deserved the boy he used to be, not the one he was. She was too good for him and he didn't want to get too close. His uncle was so worried he'd corrupt Rory that he started to believe he would too.

He did get too close. Even being on the other side of the country was too close. After leaving Stars Hollow to go to California and live with his dad she was still on his mind all the time. Sasha, his dad's girlfriend turned into his acting therapist in Venice Beach. Because of her he was able to finally talk about his feelings over David's death and to heal the wounds guilt left behind. Going to California was the best thing that ever happened to him. He felt whole again.

But as always life had to balance out. It seemed that just as he was happy his world had to crash around him. He went back to New York after a call from his mom. She met a guy and that made Jess worried. Her history with men gave him reason to come back. Then when she got married to the guy Luke, his uncle, insisted he go to the wedding. After reading a self help book lent to him by the diner owner, he drove to Yale to try and convince Rory to run away with him. She turned him down, and he left for Philadelphia that night. He quit his messenger job, gave his uncle and mom his new phone number, and disappeared again into a new world.

That was it. It was time to get over her. She turned him down for the last time. She was no longer everything he wanted. She was a miniature version of her grandmother. No way did he ever want to date Emily Gilmore, so this new Rory was not for him either.

Jess was pulled out of his day dream when he realized he was trying to drink out of an empty cup. He glanced at the clock on the building in the distance. Borders would be open by now. He shoved the empty cup and bag into the trashcan beside the bench and started to walk toward Broad Street.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer-

Again I don't own Jess or Rory or other characters mentioned in the Gilmore Girls series.

Thank you to Danishgirl for letting me know what terminology is commonly used in fanfiction stories. This will be a little bit of Jess/Rory, but I mostly will stick to how the tv show is with Rory/Logan.

Thanks for all the reviews, please keep leaving them!

As he walked toward City Hall Jess remembered how much he loved Broad Street. At night when the moon was full he would go and walk up the median, the clock glowing bright yellow and the statues faces in shadow, holding up the giant stone walls. That walk always gave him a feeling of being closer to the city.

He walked into Borders Bookstore at the corner of Broad and Chestnut, the largest one he's ever been to with three stores of books. He grabbed Naked Lunch by William Burroughs off a shelf in the literature section and rode the escalators up to the third floor. In the CD section were several chairs positioned in front of a large window. A space heater was nearby that day.

Jess took the chair closest to the heater and pulled his coat off. A man sat across from him with a newspaper. He hoped no one would come over and bother him today. One assistant manager always liked to come over and use the line "This is not a library." People didn't really stay here long enough to get to know him as the boy who spends rainy days there reading.

During the time that it took him to read the book that made Jack Kerouac come into the Beatnik scene, four different people occupied the chair across from where Jess sat. He checked his watch; it was a bit after three o'clock. The guys should have the apartment cleaned up a bit. His stomach growled under his Clash T-shirt. The chocolate donuts had been six hours ago. He stretched his limbs and picked his jacket up. He took the stairs down to the bottom floor and went to the Literature section again. A girl with short dark brown hair was bent over a box of books. Her Borders uniform of a black polo shirt and khakis hung very loosely on her body as she stretched to place a green book on the top shelf. Jess glanced at her for a second and returned Naked Lunch to the shelf.

"Hello," she said once she noticed him standing there. Jess just nodded in acknowledgement. She raised herself back onto the tips of her toes trying to reach the shelf again. Her shirt came untucked from beneath a belt covered in guitar picks. With a grunt of frustration she rolled her eyes and turned to him.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but you seem to be a good head taller than me. Can I get you to put this book up on that shelf for me?" She asked in a rushed voice. She gave him an innocent pleading look and held out the book to him.

"Fine," he responded in his trademark devil-may-care-I wish I was James Dean tone. He put the green cover in its place.

"Thanks," she said blushing slightly. As Jess tried to talk away she called out "Hey wait."

"What? Do you have more books to put up there?" He said impatiently.

"No, it's just… I noticed you had a Burroughs book. Are you a fan of the whole 1950's New York scene?" She asked taken back by his tone.

"Yeah."

"Well, here, you should read this then," she said, turning to a shelf behind her. She pulled an orange and brown colored paperback off and handed it to him. "Its Joyce Johnson's memoirs. I figured if you were reading Burroughs you've already read all of Kerouac. This shows another side of him." Jess looked down at the book. Minor Characters was scrawled across the bottom of a picture of Jack Kerouac.

"Thanks," he said, turning it over to read the back.

"I highly suggest not just reading it upstairs, but actually buying it," she said with a smirk.

"What? Do you get paid commission?" He questioned her.

"No, but by now your chair is probably occupied by some bum with good taste in books, or one that likes to taste books," she teased. She stooped down and picked up the large box of books. Jess was impressed by the petite girl's strength. She couldn't reach books, but she sure could carry a lot at once. "Have a great day," she said in an amused sing song voice. "And please come again, I love to hear boys reactions to his Kerouac."

Jess smiled for the first time since he went inside the bathroom that morning. He watched as she walked with the large box over to the Fantasy section. He followed her instruction and did buy the book. After making his purchase he walked over to the door to have the security person check his receipt and bag. He noticed the girl looking at him as he waited to be given an okay to go. She averted her glance abruptly to the book in her hand. Once again she had to reach a tall shelf and couldn't quite make it.

Before Jess went back to his apartment he stopped at the convenience store around the corner and bought dishwasher detergent, dish soap, and a large box of roach motels just in case. He was relived when coming near his door that no transsexuals were around to hit on him that afternoon. He repeated the key and alarm code routine and was pleasantly surprised to walk into a clean apartment. Derek came pounding down the stairs looking frazzled.

"Dude, when you said infestation you really meant infestation," he said, slightly out of breath. Jess smirked and sat the bag down in the hallway.

"The place looks good. Who did you hire to clean for you?" Jess asked. He walked into the living room and saw two tired looking girls sitting on a brand new couch. "I was joking! Who are they?"

"Jess these are the girls from the other night. Girls this is Jess Mariano our budding author buddy." Derek introduced them. Both girls stood up and walked over to shake his hand.

"I'm Liz," responded the taller dark-haired girl with glasses.

"I'm Zoey," said the short blonde girl, wearing a very skimpy sun dress, bizarre since it was barely forty degrees outside. Jess eyed them suspiciously and gave them the obligatory handshake.

"Which one of you threw up in my bathroom?" he asked no humor in his voice. The blond blushed and looked at the floor in shame. Jess raised his eyebrow and shot Derek a glare. "Is that my new couch?" He asked, nodding his head at the brand new black sofa with the plastic still on it.

"Yeah, there went the publishing check. By the way, we all need to work on printing out the rest of the orders tomorrow," Derek said. Jess nodded in agreement and turned his attention back to the girls.

"So if you're the one that threw up, does that make you the one that broke my futon?" He interrogated the taller girl.

"Yeah, but it was well worth it!" The girl said flirtatiously. Jess shrugged and walked over to Derek.

"Shouldn't' they be in class or something?" He whispered.

"They wanted to stop by. Dude, Matthew got so freaked he's locked up in his bedroom," said Derek with a bit of hysterical laughing. He clapped Jess on the back. "But don't worry, your bathroom and the kitchen, everything is spotless so there is no need to move out!"

"Yeah, well, I'm gonna go grab a snack and crash in my room for awhile." Jess gave the girls a glance and then walked into the kitchen. It was cleaner than it had ever been when he lived there. He sat the bag of kitchen supplies on the counter and grabbed an apple out of the basket next to it. He walked by the girls once more before going upstairs. They were gorgeous, he'd give them that, but drunk girls never really attracted him. He checked the bathroom as soon as he got upstairs. It was cockroach free and smelled distinctively of bleach. Very satisfied he laid down on his bed and started to read the book he just bought. As he read he couldn't help picturing Joyce Johnson as the petite girl from the bookstore and himself as Jack Kerouac.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer-

Don't own anyone that you recognize from TV.

And people, I know you're reading this, the hits count are on the rise, please review.

Around five o'clock a strange smell had drifted from downstairs up to Jess's room. Using his check as a bookmark, Jess went to investigate what was causing the odor. Inside the kitchen there were more girls than was before and Matthew was at the stove making pasta.

"He returns," Zoey announced. Jess noticed an empty bottle of wine on the table. Blurry eyed, the six people around the table all turned their attention to him. Derek and Chris sat with Liz and Zoey, but two more girls joined the ranks. Both were extremely tall, yet seemed to be exact opposites. The girl on his left was a very pretty black girl wearing an oversized t-shirt that read "Danger Educated Black Woman". On the right sat a girl straight out of an Abercrombie and Fitch advertisement.

"Jess, this is Christine and Sharon," Liz introduced them, as if he and she were good friends. He nodded a hello and turned to Matthew at the stove.

"What are you cooking?" he ridiculed. Something smelled terrible coming from the oven.

"Derek decided he wanted to have a dinner party. And we drew straws for who did what. I had to cook dinner and the only thing I can make is spaghetti and this weird casserole my mom used to make," Matthew replied, stirring the pot of pasta.

"Did your mom work at an institution? Or did something just happen to her nose and she couldn't smell that?" Jess mocked. Christine, the Abercrombie girl giggled. It reminded him of the girl he used to make Rory jealous. He already started to hate her.

"It has cabbage in it, forgive me," Matthew snapped, shaking the spoon at him. Jess took his box of cigarettes off the counter and grabbed a lighter from the drawer.

"I'm going to go outside for a bit," he informed no one in particular. Two chairs were pushed back making a faint squeak against the tile.

"I'll go too!" Zoey and Christine both volunteered eagerly. Jess raised an eyebrow then shrugged.

On the stoop the three smoked. The girls chatted between drags about classes. Jess had tuned them out as he thought about where he left off in his book. His concentration was interrupted by Zoey touching his arm.

"Don't you agree?" She asked him in a voice that was more than friendly. Jess blinked and turned to look at her.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I asked if you agreed with how cute Matthew is acting around Liz," she repeated. Jess, wishing to stay out of his discussion took a long drag from his cigarette. Both girls looked at him, patiently waiting for an answer.

"There is nothing cute about how he's acting. He gets weird around girls, then they get weird back," Jess responded. Neither of the blondes looked pleased with his answer. Behind him the door opened and Sharon's head peeked out. Jess never felt more relived to see a stranger.

"Guys, I have to go. Tracy just called screaming and crying. She got fired," Sharon said in a low voice. "I'm gonna go make sure she's okay." Christine stood up looking worried.

"I'll go with you. Is she alright?" She asked.

"Elaine was on her way over to see her and we're gonna take her to Cosi." Christine nodded and snubbed out her cigarette.

"Jess, it was nice to meet you," Christine turned to him as Sharon closed the door. Taking a slip of paper out of her pocket she jotted something down and handed it to him. "Call me, I would really like to get to know you, but my friend needs me." Sharon and Christine both hurried off, leaving an open mouthed Zoey and an irritated Jess with another slip of paper to shove in his pocket to forget about.

"Well, that was forward of her," she responded in a bored tone.

"So how come you and Liz aren't going to make sure that girl is okay?" He asked curious of the situation.

"Tracy? Oh she's weird. We are only friends through the connection to Elaine and them. It's a weird situation. She's a little too unsteady for my taste," Zoey explained, lighting up another cigarette. With Jess not responding she continued to gab on. "Last year she lived with me and Elaine in a dorm room, until I left to live in an apartment on Pine. She's really the nicest girl I've ever met, but she's strange. She doesn't like to drink and when she does she's a light-weight. She doesn't smoke, apparently she's allergic, and so I never really hung out with her. Because every time we would all go to my place to drink she'd get really lightheaded and start to suffocate. So for a while I never really talked to her. She was always so insecure that we didn't like her that she'd end up crying all the time. And her sense of humor, she cracks jokes about castrating any boy that hurts us. Big temper on her. She's really unbalanced."

"I think I get it," Jess finally interrupted, wanting her to shut up. Jess flicked the butt into the street and brushed off his pants. Zoey took a cue from him and did the same. They went back inside where only Liz and Matthew were left in the kitchen. Liz eyed the two of them when they walked in. The looks the girls exchanged made Jess wish eh was fluent in girl language. He decided to ignore it and grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and filled it with cereal.

"Well, it was fun but I'm going to go back to my reading," he said sarcastically.

"Oh, do you have a test or something?" Zoey asked.

"No, I don't go to college." He walked out of the kitchen with the bowl and a spoon in hand.

Jess wasn't sure what time it was when he woke up the next morning. It was raining so the construction crew didn't disturb him. He rubbed his eyes trying to remember the bizarre dream he had.

Rory was in it, so was that blonde prick from Yale, Logan was it? He was reliving the whole trip to Connecticut, but this time all those girls from last night were there in that bar with him. Rory lectured him on rubbing her face in it that he got over her and he argued that it was her fault for not marrying him.

That was the bizarre part. Jess never really thought about marrying her. Run away together; yes. Live together; yes. Sleep together; yes. Everything but the whole suit and tie and I do. He had a headache already and he only just woke up.

Today was going to be working in the basement of the house where their makeshift publishing company was. He was eager to print more copies of his book and get them to the stores immediately.

Jess was introduced to the three boys he lives with and their company from a help wanted ad in the Philadelphia Weekly. He was hired and soon found himself practically living in the basement for all the hours he worked. When Chris's brother graduated, he moved out and there was an extra room in their house. Jess was already moved in before they even asked him to stay. Shortly after that was when Derek found his notebooks with the manuscript to Subsect inside. Derek typed it up and sent it to the printer and had it bound for Jess's birthday. Seeing that book published gave Jess the greatest feeling in the world. Before that, all they printed was instruction manuals or menus. Now they had something to be proud of and make a decent amount of money.

Jess pulled on a clean pair of black jeans and a blue t-shirt. He went into his still shiny clean bathroom and got ready for another days work.

By ten o'clock the following night, four hundred copies of his book were stacked neatly in boxes ready to be dispersed. Jess ran his hand over the black covers staring up at him. Derek came over with a packing tape dispenser.

"We did it man! First run of the book is done!" He said while closing the box and taping it up.

"Yeah… feels good." Jess replied sincerely.

"We should celebrate tomorrow night. Thirsty Thursday anyone?" Chris called from behind the printing press where Chinese menus were being spit out.

"Sounds like a plan!" Derek cheered; he gave a small whoop and pounded his fists on the box.

"That's good enough for me," Jess agreed. Matthew came over with his ear to a cell phone. He covered the mouth piece.

"Did I hear something about a party?" He asked. The small dark haired Jess nodded. "Can I invite the girls over?" Matthew gave him a pleading look.

"Fine, but can we please invite people that are legal to drink too?" Jess said sternly. Derek shrugged and walked over to the push cart in the corner. He rolled it over to haul the boxes upstairs. "Call Larry and get the whole gang over. It will be my congratulations you made something of your life party." Jess said raising his hands as if to demonstration a banner.

"I'll print your sign next," Chris joked. Jess smirked and started to wipe the rampant scraps of paper off his clothes.

"It's late, I'm gonna hit the hay since we have to deliver these around town tomorrow." Derek said. Jess agreed and went upstairs after him, helping lift the cart up the concrete steps. Before shutting off the hallways light, Derek popped his head into Jess's room.

"Dude, are you alright with a party? I know they aren't really your thing." He asked concerned.

"Sure, just know if it gets busted I don't live here and I'm sneaking out the window."

"Sounds good," Derek turned away and shut off the light leaving Jess alone in the dark.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own anything recognized from the Gilmore Girl series

AN: I am sorry that this has taken so long to update. I just recently moved into an apartment and we shall not have Internet until the end of the month. Please continue to read. I have the chapters typed; it's just a matter of being able to upload them.

The last party he had been to was Kyle's in Stars Hollow. He was stuck in a house of people that he hated. The morons didn't even know how to work a keg tap. He wanted to get away so he went upstairs. Rory came up after him and got mad when he tried to make a move. She ran downstairs to Dean, her ex boyfriend, crying. Dean sucker punched him and they caused close to a thousand dollars worth of damage.

Jess decided while reminiscing he would use the money he was getting from the book to pay back Luke for everything. He put his uncle through a lot of shit in the years he lived there. When he was younger he didn't appreciate it, but this grown up Jess did.

The next morning the construction crew came back and woke the house hold of boys up with the sound of jackhammers. Jess groggily rolled himself off his bed and onto the floor, landing on his knees and hands. He crawled over to the bathroom and forced his tired self to wake up with a cold shower.

Downstairs he was greeted by a cup of coffee shoved in his face. The three other boys looked just as tired as he was. That was not a good sign that the morning would go smoothly. They had several boxes to deliver around town and to the post office to ship copies to stores in New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

"You ready to go?" Jess asked, yawning halfway through his question. Chris groaned and laid his head back down on the table. Derek ignored him and opened up the refrigerator door looking for milk.

"How about this… Since it's your book you deliver them," Chris suggested grouchily.

"Or since you're getting more money than me on each copy I sell, you deliver them," Jess rebutted. Chris rolled his head back and forth on the table as if saying no. "I didn't think so," Jess leaned over the open door of the refrigerator looking to see if there was anything edible inside. Derek had dozed off with his head inside. Jess shook the door, the movement jolted Derek awake.

"Huh… wah… oh," he said trying to remember where he was.

"You're all acting hung over" Jess commented. The three boys just groaned in response.

"We've been up for two straight days finishing up those orders. And now we have to go out in the cold and deliver them.

"I think we need to hire someone to help us out," Derek suggested. "Someone to answer phones, do PR, do what ever we want them to do so we don't have to."

"Can we afford it?" Matthew asked. His first words all morning.

"Extra help means we can get more done," Chris rationalized.

"What do you think Jess?" Derek asked.

"Its your company Derek, I just work here."

"See we hired Hess and now we have a book. We hire someone else and maybe we can move on to something greater!" Derek said excitedly. Jess exchanged glances with Chris and Matthew.

"We got to deliver this stuff, lets talk later." Matthew said, standing up. "Chris, you deliver the menus, Derek take the car and deliver the boxes to Jersey, Malvern, and Roxbourough. Jess you do Center City, I'll do the post office.

Within five hours, two hundred copies of Jess's book had reached the desired locations. It was three o'clock and Jess was sitting outside the apartment, his push cart leaning against the stoop. He left his keys on the table that morning.

On his sixth cigarette, he was trying to smoke out his anxiety over the book. Yes, it meant a lot that the bookstores even bothered to buys his books, but now he had to face a new fear. He just kept picturing his book on the clearance table in the front of the store being sold off for free with a purchase of two other books.

Or worse that it would gather year's worth of dust before anyone bothered to pick it up.

He didn't want to be a no name author. When his book lived only in a notebook no one could criticize it. Now that it was out in the real world it was open up for attacks. He felt like he just let a child loose in a den of bears.

Jess became grateful that he wasn't asthmatic, for right now he'd probably be taking a lot of puffs from an inhaler inside of a cigarette.

He spotted Derek turning around the corner with a brown paper bag in his arms. As he got closer Jess could hear glass bottles clanking against each other.

"About time someone got home," Jess said flicking ash off the tip.

"Why are you outside?" Derek asked juggling with the bag.

"Locked out, I left my keys on the counter," Jess said while snubbing his cigarette out on the sidewalk.

"Why didn't you just get Chris to let you in? He's home." Jess's jaw dropped.

"I've been knocking on that goddamn door and no one answered, so I've been sitting outside in the cold for two hours waiting for someone to get home."

"Dude, I think its time you break down and get a cellphone. Here take the bag and I'll unlock the door," Derek said passing the bag. Jess buckled under the weight of the bag.

"What all did you get?" Jess asked in a strained voice.

"A lot. Tons of people are coming. So I got a little bit of everything. And Matthew is supposed to get a keg on his way back." Derek answered as he pushed open the door. "The girls are coming and bringing a bunch of their friends. Kevin is coming and DJing. Its gonna be amazing."

"No one is allowed in my bathroom or bedroom got it?"

"Sure. Zoey suggested Beer Pong." Jess immediately regretted agreeing to the party once beer pong was mentioned. He could already picture the cops banging on his door and arresting them for supplying alcohol to minors.

Chris was passed out on the new couch when they walked in. Now Jess understood why he didn't answer the door. When Chris falls asleep he might as well be dead for nothing wakes him up. It leaves him to be the victim of many pranks. When Jess first moved in with them Chris fell asleep on the floor and woke up with an epic battle of stick figures on his chest. Their weapons were meant to look like penises but none of the boys were artistic.

After grabbing some lunch Jess decided Chris had a good idea and also took a nap. He needed to do something other than worrying about his book and how people were going to react to it.

What started out as a nap turned into more sleep than Jess has had the past few nights. At nine o'clock Derek had jumped on his bed to wake him up to help set up the beer pong table in the living room.

Almost all the furniture was cleared out to make space. Chris had converted his desk into a bar to sell shots and cups. Making money was one good thing about the party, Jess decided after seeing the sign advertising dollar shots.

"Uh, Jess, I have some bad news," Matthew said as he and Derek went into the kitchen. "The girls pretty much told everyone they knew about this party, so now we're expecting a lot of college kids to show up."

"We did however move everything that is valuable that could possibly get broke, stolen, or thrown up on into the basement," Derek said cautiously.

"And locked the door," Matthew chimed in.

"Thank god we don't have neighbors to complain," Chris called from behind the bar. "The night club shouldn't have any trouble with us having a party."

"And if they do, we'll make Jess flirt with the owner. He's got a thing for you," Derek teased.

A knock sounded on the door and they all turned. Matthew rushed over and answered it. There were all the girls he met earlier in the week with two extra tagging behind. One was a skinny red headed girl in a black hoody. The other was the short brunette from Borders.

"Hey Liz," Matthew said shyly, holding the door open for all the girls. Jess cocked his eyebrow as the six girls filed into the house. The two strangers shyly stayed right next to the door, the short brunette was looking around at the posters on the wall and at the dozens of alcohol bottles Chris was putting under the makeshift bar. Jess stood shocked that this girl that he had never imagined seeing again was standing in front of him inside his house.

She obviously didn't recognize him because she looked right at him and it didn't seem to register that a few days before she guilted him into putting a book on a shelf for her.

"Guys, this is Elaine and Traci," Liz introduced the newcomers. "This is Matthew, Chris, Derek, and Jess."

"So you're Traci?" Jess asked, coming closer to the group. "How did you get fired from Borders of all places?" The brunette girl stared at him like a deer caught in headlights, slowly turning bright red.

"Jess! Help me get the keg into the kitchen," Derek yelled, taking the embarrassed girls face as a cue to get his insensitive friend out of the room. The two went into the kitchen, which made no sense to Jess because the keg was already in there.

"Dude, that was not cool," Derek hissed under his breath.

"I met her the other day," Jess explained. "When I went to Borders, she worked there, made me buy a book." In the other room they could overhear the girls.

"I can't believe you told a perfect stranger that I got fired! Thanks, I think I'm gonna go home now." Traci said in a defeated tone. "Parties aren't my thing."

"You are not going home. Come on, he isn't very social," Liz ordered.

"Probably because every time he opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it." She replied sarcastically. Jess couldn't help but laugh at what she said. Derek shook his head in disbelief. Jess hit Derek on the shoulder and went into the living room. Traci stood with her arms cross glaring at him.

"Hey, sorry for sticking my foot in my mouth, but I remember you from Borders. You made me put a book on a shelf for you." Jess said jabbing at her with his comment.

"Oh?" She responded, still glaring.

"So how did you get fired?" He asked again.

"I recommended On the Road to this guy with facial hair. Silly me I thought he was older than fifteen. So his mom came in and complained. Threw a fit and insisted I be fired. But really I think she was just mad because I also recommended 'So your wife is an ice queen in bed' to her husband." She told him. First thing he noticed as she spoke was that she used her hands to demonstrate. Jess snickered at her story and started to life this party idea.

Another knock sounded on the door. Jess passed by the girls and answered it. Kevin was outside with three boys carrying his DJ equipment.

"J-man! Good to see you. Congrats on the book. Where should I set all this up at?" Kevin, a tall skinny black guy said. Jess pointed toward the corner where days before his futon lay in pieces. "Awesome, I've got some killer tracks for tonight." Kevin turned to the other boys and pointed in the same direction as Jess. "Put everything over there."

That second of pleasure of having a party was gone once he saw how crowded it was starting to be.

"So a lot of people are coming from your school right?" Chris asked. He must have come to the same realization Jess had.

"Yeah, sorry about that. We were so excited we told a few people." Liz explained.

"Who told a few people." Zoey added.

"Who told a ton of people." Christine chimed in.

"Who managed to post it on Facebook and Myspace." Sharon ended in a disdained tone.

"And who dragged their unwilling friends with them." Elaine and Traci said in chorus. Zoey rolled her eyes and headed straight to the bar for Chris to pour her a drink.

At ten o'clock the crowd of students had started to show up. The boys that lived there were stunned. The girls spent the time Jess and Derek were setting up "pregaming." Meaning they were already on the verge of being drunk before the first group of uninvited guests showed up. Being an observer only were Traci and Elaine. They watched their friends slowly disgrace themselves with alcohol while discussing the concert schedule for that month.

After an hour of being stuck in a room of mostly freshmen that did not learn how to hold their liquor yet, Jess escaped upstairs. He desperately hoped that no one had decided to go have sex in his bedroom.

When he reached his closed door, light was coming out from the crack. It was quiet though. He placed his ear on the door to see if it was safe to open it. So either he forgot to turn off the light, or mimes were having sex in his room.


	6. Chapter 6

An/ Alright, so the updates are getting slower, but I assure you I now have internet so that should speed stuff up. Here's a tip to any of you that will be moving into new apartments any time soon, make sure you have scheduled to have the cable/internet guy come the day after you move in, don't wait until you move in to make an appointment, because it may be a month before you get it.

Sorry for the rant, I am just a little stressed with moving and starting school.

Disclaimer- Don't own anything you recognize from Gilmore Girls, obviously.

He opened the door and heard a girl's voice cry out "Oh shit." Jess looked inside and saw the same petite brunette standing there with the book Choke in her hand. The two looked at each other, unsure of what to do. After what seems like a very long awkward pause she directed her eyes to the floor.

"Sorry… I just got bored with all the drunks and needed to get away from this kid and came up here… and saw your amazing collection and you had a book I haven't read yet so I thought, what the hell, my friends will still be drinking for a few more hours, before I have to drag their alcoholic asses home, and…" She babbled on, in a shaky nervous voice. Where her hair didn't fall into her face he could see her round cheeks were burning red.

"It's alright… You pretty much have the same plan as me, but I don't have to drag anyone home, just drag them out of mine." He answered in his best James Dean voice hoping not to sound like a tool. "That's a good book; you can borrow it if you like."

"Thanks, my… friend told me about it. In high school he recommended it for the Great Books class to read without realizing what kind of book it was. So they had to tell the administration they were reading War and Peace." She said finally bringing her gaze up to meet his. Her manner of speaking reminded him of Rory. He couldn't decide if tit was charming or annoying. The room was again filled with an awkward pause.

"Well, the party is still raging and I'm in the middle of that book you recommended," Jess dragged out. Traci gave him a confused look.

"What book?"

"That's right, you don't remember me. I guess getting fired can cause short term memory loss," he sarcastically stated while walking over to his bed. Under his pillow was the copy of Minor Characters she had bullied him into buying.

"Ooh, I remember harassing you now!" She said devilishly as he showed her the cover. "Mr. Leather jacket- I sit in Borders for hours like a homeless bum."

"Hey, I had to get out of this place, because of your friend throwing up in my bathroom." He shouted defensively.

"Eww, which one did that?" She asked, her nose scrunched up.

"The anorexic blonde with the hippie name."

"Zoey? She's not anorexic; she just smokes and drinks coffee in place of buying real groceries. And we're not exactly friends." Traci cynically replied.

"Yeah, I get that feeling."

"So which one of them did you hook up with?" She asked so bluntly that it took him by surprise.

"None!" He outcried, his voice squeaking like a boy going through puberty. It was so humiliating and out of character that the two both cracked up. She stopped laughing and gave him a look. Jess couldn't quite place it. If it had came from Zoey or Leah it would have been a come-hither look. But this girl was different somehow. It was flirting yet mocking.

"So.. before you came in I was reading on your bed because of your lack of furniture. But now that you probably plan on reading on your bed I'm going go hide in another bedroom until the party dies down." Traci turned swiftly on her heel and walked toward the open door. She froze inside the door jam. Jess noticed her back tense.

"Traci! I've been looking everywhere for you," rang a high-pitched male voice.

"Ben… hi…" She said uncomfortably. Traci stepped back into the room a bit. She had a horrified look on her face. Jess walked over spotting the boy in the hallway. He was just a bit taller than Traci with spiked greasy black hair and thick black eyeliner. His shirt was a pink tank top with a black fishnet thing over top. Jess could have sworn he was wearing girl pants too. Traci forced a smile as Ben came closer.

"Ben, I want you to meet Jess. Jess this is Ben." She said in the awkward voice of a person that wanted to be anywhere else in the world. Ben offered Jess his black finger nailed hand. Jess just looked at it and didn't chose to shake it. Defeated the strange Goth boy turned back to Traci.

"So do you want to go back to my dorm with me?" He asked. "I thought it would be fun, maybe watch a movie?" Try as she might, the disgusted look on her face was not masked. Jess wrapped his arm around her shoulders and grabbed onto the door.

"Ben is it?" He asked in a menacing tone. "She's not going to go anywhere with you tonight, try again tomorrow." With that he closed the door and locked the freak out.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Is that the person you came up here to escape from?" He asked slowly removing his arm from around her.

"Yes. I met him at our schools Halloween party. I was dressed up as a pirate and he was a mobster. At first I'll admit I thought he was cute, but he wasn't dressed like that. I escaped the party with my friend Casey and a few others, and he followed me. We didn't even invite him. And the next morning he found me on Facebook and Myspace. He sent me a message saying I should come over because he thought I was cute. But at that point he also mentioned how he couldn't find his eyeliner and how he was bisexual and I just told him no. And he's been following me everywhere. He showed up at Borders, sat outside my one class. I told him he was being really pesky but he won't listen." She said exhausted. She finally stopped to catch her breath. She flopped down onto the floor and smacked her head against the wall. "I guess this is god's way of punishing me for wearing a corset and celebrating a pagan holiday." She joked, shaking her head back and forth.

"You can stay in here. I'm just going to read. You can do the same." Jess offered. She lifted her head up. With a smirk she stood up.

"Can I lay on your bed?" She said innocently. He gave her a strange look. She winked and walked past him to flop down onto the blue sheets. "Hey, its your own fault for not having any furniture in here. And this might be your last chance to get a girl in your bed tonight."

"Fine, but no hogging the pillows." He caved in. She positioned herself onto her stomach, supporting her body on her elbows. Jess laid on his side with the book out in front of him., Their feet would occasionally touch as she bounced them to the beat of the music downstairs. Neither talked, they both just lay there in their own worlds of fiction.

Jess was shook out of his book when the music suddenly shut off downstairs. He sat up and glanced at his alarm clock. It was 3:17. He looked over at Traci who was fast asleep resting her head on her arm, curled into a ball.

He pulled himself off the bed trying not to disturb her. Downstairs Derek and Kevin were cleaning up the living room. Discarded cups, trash, and cigarette butts littered the floor. Jess could see where a few people had spilt their drinks.

"So how did we do?" he asked, looking at Chris count the money.

"Sold about a hundred cups and five hundred shots." Chris said. He held up the large stack of dollar bills. "Strip club anyone?" He asked.

In the kitchen three of the girls remained. Liz, Zoey, and Sharon were sitting on the table where beer pong had been. They were all blurry eyed and red in the face.

"Jesh!" Zoey slurred. "Where have you been all night?"

"Upstairs with Traci. Did her stalker go home?" He asked. All three girls looked at him surprised.

"Where is Traci?" Sharon asked confused.

"Upstairs asleep." Jess answered. Zoey looked like she got slapped. Sharon was smiling.

"Well, don't wake her up. She's had a rough week. We're going to go home. Take car of her" Liz said, pulling on Zoey's arm. The three left, having a bit of trouble walking and opening the door. Matthew walked with them to make sure everyone got home alright.

After Jess helped Derek and Chris clean up the house, he went back upstairs. Traci had stretched out on his bed with her back facing him. He picked up the book she was reading and set it on the nightstand. The noise made her stir. She rolled over blinking, her short brown hair was messy and sticking up a little in the back. With tired eyes and a smile she looked up at him.

"Hi," she whispered, closing her eyes again. Jess walked over and pulled a blanket over her, grabbed his pillow and went downstairs to sleep on the couch.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer- Don't own Jess or anything recognizable from the series.

I know you all keep asking when the Jess and Rory pairing is going to come up. Next chapter, I promise.

The next morning Jess learned exactly how loud a jack hammer was from street level. Right outside the window above the couch the construction crew started. With only a few hours of sleep Jess groaned, covered his head with the pillow, and tried to go back to sleep. It was no use. He got up and turned on the coffee pot. Soon three very hung-over boys joined him.

"That was a wild party last night. Shall we rest today or go looking for a new employee?" Matthew asked, the most awake of the group.

"If we find one early can we go back to bed guilt free?" Chris murmured.

"Sure." At that time a squeak of a floor board altered them of Traci who was trying to sneak out of the house. They all turned.

"Good morning!" Derek said cheerfully. He got up and walked over to her. Traci turned bright red and tired to hide her face. "Now chica, we hope you're not running out of here without a cup of coffee in you."

"I don't drink coffee." She said quietly. It was endearing how innocent and awkward she was.

"Sit down, please," he said more like an order than a request. He stirred her over to the table and she sat in his chair. "Now we were just talking about how we need someone around to help us with our blooming publishing company. Are you still looking for a job because we want to hire you."

Traci sat confused at this news. Jess was equally confused. She focused her stare on Derek.

"I just met you less than ten hours ago." She replied.

"Buy you gave us a great first impression!" Chris said. Jess finally understood. They just wanted to go back to sleep. He didn't blame them. She still looked skeptical.

"Please, you'd be doing us a great favor." Matthew pleaded.

"You know I'm a student right? I have classes."

"We'll work around it." Derek said.

"How much does it pay?"

"How much do you need?" Chris said enthusiastically.

"Within reason!" Derek interrupted.

"Seven fifty an hour. A little over minimum wage sound alright to you?" She suggested.

"Absolutely." The three boys said. Jess just watched amused at the scene in front of him. Traci finally turned to the black haired boy.

"Should I do it?" She asked him, sternly looking into his eyes.

"You have good taste in books, and you're into design, I think you'll work out perfectly. Besides, you can lift heavy boxes, you already got Chris beat." Jess commented. Chris kicked him from under the table.

"Alright, I'll start tomorrow. I need to get to class." She stood up and started to walk out the door. She paused and turned around. "Maybe I will take a cup of coffee." Jess smirked and got up to pour her some coffee into a mug. "Mind if I borrow this? I'll wash it and bring it back tomorrow."

"Sure." He handed her the cup and she smiled and left the apartment. As the door shut Derek stretched his arms.

"Alright, our work is done, I'm going back to bed."

"Hold it, you know nothing about that girl and you hired her." Matthew yelled.

"You didn't have a problem with it a second ago." Derek argued.

"You hired a nobody just so you can sleep." Chris rationalized.

"You were on board!"

"Because she was sitting right there." Chris said sheepishly.

"Jess?" Derek whined, he pleaded for support with a small glance to his best friend.

"She seems alright. If she doesn't work out we can find someone new. All she'll be doing is little things," Jess answered.

"Thank you!" Derek sang as he grabbed and kissed Jess's head. "Now can I go back to sleep?" The other two boys rolled their brown eyes and nodded. Derek sprinted upstairs and went back to sleep.

Once the caffeine left his system Jess went up to his bedroom to take a nap like the rest of the house was. Next to his alarm clock was apiece of paper with a little drawing of a dog sleeping in a leather jacket.

In barely legible handwriting Traci had written

' Last night was very strange. But thank you for getting rid of Bisexual Ben andletting me read and sleep in your bed.

Thanks, Traci

Here's my number- 555-1010 I want to hear what you thought about Minor Characters.'

Jess smiled and looked at the picture she doodled. It was scratchy in ballpoint pen, but it was obvious she was a skilled artist. Better than he was at least.

He laid on his bed and fell instantly asleep dreaming about the car ride he had with Rory. The point in his dream where they crashed into the bench he woke up with a start.

The sound of the crash wasn't a crunching metal. It was of something being dropped. It was six o'clock and people were downstairs making a racket.

At the base of the stairs empty liquor bottles were set up like bowling pins. Derek stood on the other side of the room with a few of their guy friends with a Frisbee in his hands. He threw it toward the bottles knocking a few down with the impact.

"Hey man! Up for some bowling?" Derek asked. Jess cocked his eyebrow and picked up the Frisbee.

"Sure what the hell." Jess replied. John, a short muscular guy walked over and set the bottles back up. John was a guitar player for a local punk band. He also happened to be the most masculine gay guy Jess has ever met. No one knew it until Derek had set him up on a date with their friend Terri. John had called them up in a panic in the middle of his date yelling about how could they set him up with a girl.

Jess learned right then how confusing nongender specific names could be.

When Jess was on his second toss Matthew's phone rang. The boys all stopped and looked at him. It was a strange habit, but they all had eavesdropping in common. Whenever someone got on their phone they would drop what they were doing and listened. That was one reason why Jess didn't want a cellphone.

"Hello? Oh hey Liz. I'm good how about yourself? Yeah… Yes we did. Traci seems really nice. No. Liz we did not hire her just because of us sleeping together. I swear. We just need someone to help out. Its not fishy. No. I don't know. What? How am I supposed to know?" Matthew rolled his eyes at his friends. "Fine! Fine! I'll ask if you will drop it." He covered up the mouthpiece and turned to Jess. "Zoey wants to know if you like her and want to go out for coffee or something." Jess gave him a disgusted look and Matthew shrugged before removing his hand from his phone. "He said she seems great but he's too focused on writing the sequel to Subsect to go out. Yeah, I'll tell him that. W hat? Traci? Yeah she was still here this morning, that's when we hired her. No, Jess slept on the couch. Why does she care? Liz I go to go the guys are over. No you haven't met them yet. Uh, maybe next weekend? Yeah sounds great. Have a good night." Matthew hung up the phone and groaned. "Who knew that dating a girl meant dating her friends too?"

"Could be worse, this girl I dated it felt like I was dating her mother too." Jess sympathized while aiming the Frisbee. With his toss he knocked over the rest of the pines picking up a spare.

"Was her mom hot?" Dylan, their chubby dreadlocked friend asked. Dylan was a bad influence but a dependable friend. He was a dealer to most of the local college kids. They called his collection of bongs a laboratory, because it covered his entire kitchen island counter. He reminded Jess of a mix between Jay and Silent Bob and Bob Marley.

"Yeah, but obnoxious." Jess answered while he went over to pick up the bottles. "She hated me. I was the bad boy she didn't want dating her daughter."

"Jess was a bad boy?" John laughed. "I know you own a leather coat but that doesn't make you the devil incarnate."

"Well, I skipped school enough to not graduate, random acts of vandalism, stole a girl from her boyfriend, painted a police tracing of a dead body on the sidewalk, crashed her daughters car, petty theft, um, I think there is more, but for a little town I might as well have been named Lucifer." Jess bragged. The guys hooted and laughed. Jess tossed the Frisbee to Dylan and he took his shot. As Dylan aimed Matthew's phone rang again.

"Hello?" He answered. "Oh, hi Traci. No its not a problem. Tomorrow at twelve sounds fine. Just come here. Yeah. Thanks. Goodnight." Matthew gave a surprised expression as he hung up. "Well, we can guarantee that Traci is a very responsible girl."

"Why's that?" Derek asked.   
"She got my number from Liz to find out what time she should come over. And polite enough to apologize for interrupting my night." Matthew said. The expression was still on his face as he stared at his phone.

"And she didn't bug you about Jess liking her friend." John added. All the boy nodded in agreement. Dylan threw the Frisbee and missed completely. It bounced off the wall and rolled back toward where they all stood.

The boys all went home around midnight. After an hour of playing Frisbee they started to keep score. Dylan had a total of four after five hours. Jess had the second lowest score with two hundred and four. Derek and Chris tied with three hundred. John skunked them all by getting seven hundred and seventy two. Matthew has stopped playing once they started to keep score and got on his computer to check a message board he started. Matthew was a Dungeons and Dragons freak.

Jess went back upstairs and spotted the card sitting next to the check he has yet to cash. He shut off the light and went to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer- It's the same as the other chapters.

The great thing about weekends was that the construction crew didn't work, so the boys could sleep in. Nothing disturbed their sleep until noon when someone pounded on their front door. Chris and Matthew shared a bedroom on the ground floor, so Matthew was the first to make it to the front door. Chris was completely unconscious to the disturbance. Jess and Derek groggily came out of their bedrooms at the same thing.

"Who the hell is at our door this early?" Matthew asked. Jess grunted unable to speak. He was still half asleep. Matthew was fumbling with the locks once the two boys descended the stairs.

At the door Traci stood in a pair of tight black jeans and a Rolling Stones t-shirt. She looked amused as Derek sleepily asked, "What are you doing here?" He was hung-over from the night before.

"Uh, you told me I could come and start working today."

"Yeah, at noon."

"It is noon." She jabbed. "Nice boxers boys." The three all looked down at their pantless legs. Matthew wore black boxers with a hole in the leg. Jess had his guitar boxers and Derek's were plastered with Guinness logos and had a weird brown stain along the waistband. "So should I just come back in an hour or so?"

"No come in. We'll get ready." Matthew said. The boys all moved away from he door and held it open for her. She walked in and went toward the couch. "We'll be back in a second." They all ran upstairs Jess in the lead. All he could think as he quickly changed was how he was glad he didn't' wear the bunny ones that Sasha his stepmother gave him as a joke. Considering how long it had been since he last did laundry they were going to be worn tomorrow.

He gelled his hair and hurried out of his bedroom wearing torn blue jeans and his beige Bob Dylan shirt. When he entered the living room Traci was nowhere in sight.

"Derek! Your underwear scared her away!" He yelled up to the second floor.

"I'm in the kitchen!" A female voice said. Jess walked in and saw Traci pouring coffee into three cups. "I assumed that you guys are either hung-over or not morning people."

"Or both." Derek said from behind Jess.

"She makes coffee." Jess said surprised.

"Good, we did well in hiring her. What else can she do?" Derek said impressed. Traci turned and handed them each a mug.

"I can type, make phone calls, pretty much anything you wan that isn't illegal I will do." She answered.

"So…" Derek started to say in a sly voice.

"No, prostitution is illegal." She interrupted.

"She reads minds too." Derek laughed.

"So what exactly do you guys do that you needed me?" She asked sitting down at the table.

"It's a publishing company." Jess stated as if that's all someone need to know.

"We just printed 500 copies of Jess's book he wrote, that's what upgraded our printer to a publisher." Derek informed her. Matthew walked into the room and grabbed the mug off the counter. "We do odd printing jobs. But what we need you to do is help us expand. That means answering the phone downstairs, taking orders, figuring out how to use the computer."

"Helping us deliver stuff." Chris said groggily as he entered the kitchen.

"Cleaning." Matthew added between gulps of coffee. "I'm going to warn you we haven't touched the entire basement for a long time."

The boys continued to go on taking turns listing their duties that they wished to pass onto Traci, the unaware girl. Jess watched fascinated as she listened to them intently. After a constant stream of orders she reached into her pocket and pulled out a strange looking book. It was like the front of a house with a window and a bike on the cover with a clear pocket at the window.

"Hold on, you guys keep jabbing I need to write this stuff down." She said. Jess looked over her shoulder as she started the list.

"You have terrible handwriting." He commented looking over her shoulder.

"I know, my mom has tried to beat it out of me, but it just got worse out of spite." She joked. "So what do you want me to start with?' The boys all exchanged glances. Jess shrugged and sipped his coffee turning away from the table.

"Wanna help us try and organize and clean downstairs?" Derek asked.

"Sure." She stood up and went over to the coffee pot draining the last of it into a cup for Chris. She handed it to him with a huge smile. "None of you have ever had management experience have you?"

"No" they chorused.

"Good, this should be fun." She smiled broadly dimples showing at the corners of her mouth.

It was when group walked over to the stairwell that led to the basement that Jess saw the mail had come. He walked over to pick it up, knowing that if he didn't his roommates would let it sit there until it got kicked under the couch and their electric would be shut off again. The cable bill, Matthew's cell phone bill, and a letter addressed to him lay in front of the door. Ignoring the other two, Jess ripped open the envelope that lacked a return address. It was from Rory.

Dear Jess,

I'm so sorry about how things turned out when you came to visit me. Logan was a jerk and I can't believe he acted like that. I miss you and feel terrible that we didn't get to spend more time together. Please feel free to come visit me. I am back in Stars Hollow right now, staying with Lane until I can figure out what I'm doing to myself. You were right, this isn't me. I don't know what happened to me. Please write back. I need you. Without you I might still be staying at my grandmother's house being in the DAR for gods sake.

You're wonderful, and your book is incredible. I've read it three times. Every time I open it to a new page I feel like I hear your voice saying it on an audiotape, or reading it to a crowded coffee shop.

Hope you're well, and please forgive me.

Love, Rory

Jess read the letter three times before Derek came upstairs covered in dust. Something on his face let the blonde know to leave him alone. Just as he felt like he was out she pulled him back in. It wasn't fair. How could he continue to be in love with her after being away from her for three years? How could a visit here and there make him still mad about her?

Jess went downstairs, forcing himself to forget about Rory and to focus on their makeshift publishing company. None of the boys were very organized or clean. Traci started to arrange things immediately. As they picked up the hurricane of papers scattered all over the floor Derek pointed out machines and forms they used.

Once all the machines were freed from their paper cocoons, Chris demonstrated to Traci how to use each one. She scribbled into her book drawing small diagrams as he talked. She caught on quickly. Jess noticed as he watched her that the dimpled smile never left her face. She reminded him of Rory. He slammed his fist on the filing cabinet, angry with himself for letting his guard down. This girl was not like Rory. Rory toyed with him. She is just an employee. And his employee was looking at him confused, smile gone from her face.

"Uh, Jess, everything alright?" She asked quietly. The guys gave him a minute's notice then turned back to what they were doing.

"There was a bug. I was trying to kill it," he answered dumbly. She raised an eyebrow and patted him on the back.

"Well, I think you got him, and the filing cabinet both." She walked over to where a bag of trash sat and picked it up. Jess wished there really was a bug on the cabinet and that he could use his head to hit it this time. The basement was completely cleaned by six o'clock. Papers were neatly stacked on the desk waiting to be sorted. The floor was swept and the inch of dust collected on the machines was wiped clean.

"I can't believe how shiny these are," Matthew admired them. "Did we even wipe them down when we bought them?"

"Um… I don't remember," Chris said absently. "We were pretty stoned when we went to that auction." Traci smirked and ran her fingers through her hair.

"So, our daring new office girl, what do you say o going out to dinner with us?" Derek flirted.

"Sure, should I call up Liz and tem to come along?"

"No!" Jess and Matthew yelled in a panic. Traci blinked and gave them a strange look.

"Alright… Should I inform you girlfriend that she isn't your girlfriend anymore as my next office girl duty? " She said impatiently.

"No it's not like that. She just got weird last night about us hiring you. She thinks I did it just because we're together."

"Wait, you didn't? I just assumed…" she said softly, not finishing her sentence.

"No, its more Derek wanted to go back to bed but we told him he couldn't until we hired someone to help us out." Jess answered. He hadn't spoken much that day, mostly stuck in his own head. He was ready to say anything to keep Traci here and speaking.

Which she didn't for a while. She stared blankly at all of them in turn. Then after what seemed like a torturously long pause she smiled and started to laugh.

"I think I'm going to like working for all you." She pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and checked the time. "Well, I would love to go get dinner with you all, but I promised my friend Casey I'd go with her as she got her newest piercing."

"What's she getting done?" Derek asked.

"Lip. I missed out on her last one for a drinking party disaster. So I can't miss this one." She looked up from her phone at their curious faces. "It's a long story, I'll tell you about it later."

"When do you want to work next?"

"Um… I will get back to you. I have to check my class schedule and stuff to see when a good time will be."

"I have your number, I'll call you Monday." Jess rushed to say, stumbling over a few of the words. Traci gave him a shy smile and went to leave. Derek followed behind to show her out.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer- Think I have enough of these that I cannot do it anymore?

AN: Thanks for all the reviews guys, but you've left me conflicted. So what I'm gonna do is ask if you all can leave a note in your reviews if I should have it Jess/Traci or Jess/Rory

As Jess turned back to face Chris and Matthew he had an awkward smile on his face. His smile couldn't compare to the ones plastered onto his friends' faces.

"Awww, Jessy Wessy, you're so cute!" Matthew said in a baby voice, pitching Jess's cheeks.

"Knock it off," Jess said in a muffled voice, hitting Matthew's hands away. His face was bright red, not only from the pain of Matthew's pinching but also from embarrassment.

"So does Jessy Wessy have a crush on Traci Wacey?" Chris jumped in with his own baby voice.

"Not a crush. Attraction. We're not in high school anymore." Jess scorned. The two boys looked at each other and then turned back to Jess with identical evil grins.  
"So are you going to ask her out? She's obviously into you."

"So are all her friends. Wouldn't that cause problems?" Jess asked.

"We could double date. Maybe Liz wouldn't be so… clingy if she had a friend to distract her."

"Dude, Liz is not clingy, you're just not used to girls liking you." Chris argued. "Girls call you when they like you. Girls came over to hang out. That does not make her a stalker."

"Whose a stalker?" Derek asked as he appeared from the stairs. "Traci is not a stalker."

'We were talking about Liz," Matthew answered.

"She isn't one either." Derek said tossing them each a beer. "Now lets get back to Traci. So did we do good or what hiring her?"

"Yes you did," Jess replied pulling the tab of his can up. The air gushed out with a bit of head overflowing.

"So does asking her out make it sexual harassment?" Chris asked in a devious voice.

"You asked her out? When did that happen? Did you use ninja mind tricks?" Derek replied confused.

"That's Jedi mind tricks." Matthew corrected him.

"No, we're trying to get Jess to ask her out." Chris said over Matthew's protest.

"She's an employee, I can't ask her out, Jess monotonously replied.

"Technically we're paying her under the table, so no laws really apply," Derek said with a shrug, spilling some of his beer in the process. "So go ahead."

"No, it will be awkward working together."

"She's cute, fuck awkward." Matthew yelled. He chugged his beer and wiped his mouth. "I better go call Liz."

"Yeah, make sure you keep this girlfriend, people will start to talk if none of us are scoring with hot chicks." Derek ordered.

It was the middle of the night and Jess couldn't fall asleep. His mind was clouded with thoughts of Rory. Why had she written to him now of all times. He was remembering back to the picnic for some reason. He blew a whole weeks paycheck on Rory's stupid picnic basket that had no real food inside.

He opened up his drawer where he had hidden everything that reminded him of her. Inside was a bracelet that looked just like the one Dean had made for her. He was in Old City and a girl was set up at the arts and crafts fair with all her handmade jewelry. He ran his thumb over the charm, remembering how Rory's kiss felt when he came back to Stars Hollow.

Who was he trying to kid? He wasn't over her. The letter made things worse. If she were giving him a chance he'd take her back despite the years they have been apart.

Should he or could he ask Traci out? Was it fair to her when she wasn't going to be the only girl on his mind? But was it fair to himself to just wait around for Rory for the rest of his life?

Pocketing the bracelet Jess pulled his jacket and shoes on. He grabbed his keys off his desk and went downstairs and out the door.

It was snowing outside. It was unusually early for snow, but it was only a week before Thanksgiving. Jess looked up at the sky as the flakes came down. One thing that never failed to make him happy was snow, seeing the street and the cars getting covered with a light blanket of white was inspiring. Most of his book took place in winter because of it.

He came back to the east coast because Venice Beach didn't get snow.

And was too far away from Rory.

Jess hit himself in the head, angry that he keeps thinking about her. He stopped on the sidewalk suddenly clear of what he should do.

At 3 am, the only other people out were either drunk or homeless. Jess quickly walked toward the river. There weren't many people on the street. The sidewalk turned into cobblestones. He was getting closer. The blue glow of the Market Street sign and Penn's landing made the snow look magical. Jess broke into a sprint once he felt another memory of Rory creeping up on him. He reached the pier and leaned against the rail over the water. The glow of the moon on the water could have been considered romantic, had he come here for any other reason.

"Rory!" Jess screamed at the top of his lungs. "Fuck you and your blonde Yale Prick! This is the last time I waste my breath and mind on you. You played me and lead me on. I quit!" He pulled the bracelet out of his pocket and threw it with all his might. It soared through the air and plunked into the dark water. He stared at the ripples forming on the water.

As they disappeared Jess felt free from the girl that plagued his mind for four years. He smiled and turned away and walked over to the closest pay phone. Putting a dollar of change into the slot he dialed a long distance phone number. It rang a few times until the annoying bell was replaced with rustling.

"Hello?" a very tired voice answered,

"Traci?"

"No, this is her roommate. Who is this?" The female on the other side asked.

"Is she there?"

"Yeah, let me get her." Jess could hear creaking of floor boards and the girl opening doors until she said "Trace, hey, wake up. Phone. No I don't. Here."

"Hello?" Traci asked confused.

"Traci?"

"Yes, who is this?" She sounded wide-awake now, her voice shaking.

"It's Jess."

"Oh my gosh," she said breathlessly. "I thought something bad happened to my family. Wait, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, sorry to call so late, I just couldn't sleep. I wanted to ask you something."

"It couldn't wait till morning?" She said annoyed.

"I was afraid if I waited I'd talk myself out of it."

"Out of what."

"Would you like to go see a movie with me tomorrow night?"

"Uh, do you mean Sunday or Monday?"

"Which ever works for you."

"How about tonight?"

"Sounds great."

"Alright, well, I'm going to go back to sleep. Goodnight."

"Night." He heard a click and the dial tone on the payphone. Ecstatic he walked home, feeling lighter than he had in a long time. The last time he felt like this was when Rory had admitted to liking him. He promised himself right then that he would not let him get crazy about this girl like he had Rory. He'd practice self-control. No jealously, no lying, no running away. He would be a normal person.

It didn't hit him until he reached his door that calling a girl in the middle of the night while she was sleeping was not the most normal thing to do.


End file.
